University of Gondar

Faculty of Technology
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Digital Logic Design Summary Notes

Prepared by: Agmuasie Belay

Date: March 29/2023

Gondar, Ethiopia
Digital Logic Design

Basic concepts of Digital Systems

1. Analog and digital quantities

In analog representation a quantity is represented by a continuously variable, proportional
indicator. An example is an automobile speedometer of old cars. Thus, analog quantity is one
having continuous values.

In digital representation the quantities are represented not by continuously variable

indicators but by symbols called digits. As an example, consider the digital clock. Digital
quantity is one having a discrete set of values.

Speedometer Digital clock

The major difference between analog and digital quantities, then, can be simply stated as
follows:

• analog continuous
• digital discrete (step by step)

A digital system is a combination of devices designed to manipulate logical information or

physical quantities that are represented in digital form.

An analog system contains devices that manipulate physical quantities that are represented
in analog form.

Advantages of Digital Techniques

1. Digital systems are generally easier to design.

2. Information storage is easy.
3. Accuracy and precision are easier to maintain throughout the system
4. Operation can be programmed
5. Digital circuits are less affected by noise.
6. More digital circuitry can be fabricated on IC chips
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Limitations of Digital Techniques

1. The real world is analog.

2. Processing digitized signals takes time.
2. Digital Number Systems
Decimal System(Base 10): is composed of 10 numerals or symbols- 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. The
decimal system is a positional-value system in which the value of a digit depends on its
position.

Eg: 23.75 = 2𝑥101 + 3𝑥100 + 7𝑥10−1 + 5𝑥10−2

The digit that carries the most weight of the digits; it is referred to as the most significant digit
(MSD), the digit that carries the least weight and is called the least significant digit (LSD).

Binary System: Unfortunately, the decimal number system is inconvenient to implement in

digital systems. It is very difficult to design electronic equipment so that it can work with 10
different voltage levels. For this reason, almost every digital system uses the binary (base-2)
number system as the basic number system of its operations. The binary system thus uses
only two symbols or possible digit values, 0 and 1. The binary system is also a positional value
system,

Eg: 1011.1012 = 1𝑥23 + 0𝑥22 + 1𝑥21 + 1𝑥20 + 1𝑥2−1 + 0𝑥2−2 + 1𝑥2−3 = 11.62510

Binary counting: The sequence (shown in Figure below) begins with all bits at 0; this is called
the zero count.

For a given number system, by using N digits or places, we can go through 𝑏 𝑁 counts
where b is the given base. The last count is given by 𝑏 𝑁 − 1.

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For example, with two digits in base 10, we can go through counts (00 through 99 ); with four
bits in base 2, we can go through counts (0000 through 1111 ); and so on.

Self assessment
1. What is the decimal equivalent of 11010112 ?
2. What is the next binary number following 101112 in the counting sequence?
3. What is the largest decimal value that can be represented using 12 bits?

3. Representing Binary Quantities

Binary quantities can be represented by any device that has only two operating states or
possible conditions. For example, a switch has only two states: open (represent binary 0 ) or
closed (represent binary 1). Similarly, we can use another two state device to represent binary
quantities: (with logic levels LOW = 0, HIGH = 1)

✓ light bulb (bright or dark),

✓ diode (conducting or nonconducting),
✓ electromagnet (energized or deenergized),
✓ transistor (cut off or saturated),
✓ thermostat (open or closed),
✓ spot on a magnetic disk (magnetized or demagnetized).

In electronic digital systems, binary information is represented by voltages (or currents) that
are present at the inputs and outputs of the various circuits. Typically, the binary 0 and 1 are
represented by two nominal voltage levels. For example, zero volts (0 V) might represent
binary 0, and 5 V might represent binary 1.

In actuality, because of circuit variations, the 0 and 1 would be represented by voltage ranges.
In digital systems, the exact value of a voltage is not important; for example, for the voltage
assignments of Figure below, a voltage of 3.6 V means the same as a voltage of 4.3 V. In analog
systems, the exact value of a voltage is important.

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4. Digital Circuits/Logic Circuits

Digital circuits are designed to produce output voltages that fall within the prescribed 0 and
1 voltage ranges such as those defined in Figure above. Likewise, digital circuits are designed
to respond predictably to input voltages that are within the defined 0 and 1 ranges.

Logic Circuits: The manner in which a digital circuit responds to an input is referred to as the
circuit’s logic. Each type of digital circuit obeys a certain set of logic rules. For this reason,
digital circuits are also called logic circuits.

Digital Integrated Circuits: Almost all of the digital circuits used in modern digital systems are
integrated circuits (ICs). Several integrated-circuit fabrication technologies are used to
produce digital ICs, the most common being CMOS, TTL, NMOS, and ECL.

5. Parallel and Serial Transmission

Parallel transmission of data sends all data bits simultaneously over multiple wires. The
number of wires is equal to the number of bits to be transmitted (e.g. From computer to
printer).

Serial transmission of data sends a single bit at a time over a single wire sequentially (e.g.
From computer to modem).

The principal trade-off between parallel and serial representations is one of speed versus
circuit simplicity. The parallel transmission of binary data from one part of a digital system is
fast, but complex where as serial transmission is slow but simple (needs fewer number of
transmission lines).

6. Memory
In digital circuitry that have memory, they can retain the response (output) to a momentary
input is called memory.

Self assessment
1. What is the difference between a digital circuit that has memory and the one
that does not.
2. Name the five major functional units of a computer.
3. Which two units make up the CPU?
4. An IC chip that contains a CPU is called a _____.
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Recall
2. What
✓ Theistwo
thebasic
nextways
binary number following
of representing 10111
the numerical 2 in
value the counting
of physical quantities are
analog (continuous) and digital (discrete).
✓ Most quantities in the real world are analog, but digital techniques are generally
superior to analog techniques, and most of the predicted advances will be in the
digital realm.
✓ The binary number system (0 and 1) is the basic system used in digital technology.
✓ Digital or logic circuits operate on voltages that fall in prescribed ranges that
represent either a binary 0 or a binary 1.
✓ The two basic ways to transfer digital information are parallel—all bits
simultaneously—and serial—one bit at a time.
✓ The main parts of all computers are the input, control, memory, arithmetic/logic,
and output units.
✓ The combination of the arithmetic/logic unit and the control unit makes up the
CPU (central processing unit).
✓ A microcomputer usually has a CPU that is on a single chip called a
microprocessor.
✓ A microcontroller is a microcomputer especially designed for dedicated (not
general-purpose) control applications

7. Number Systems and Codes

Self assessment
1. Convert 1000110110112 to its decimal equivalent.
2. What is the weight of the MSB of a 16-bit number?
3. Convert 72910 to binary equivalent.
4. How many bits are required to count up to decimal 1 million?
5. Convert 24CE16 to decimal.
6. Convert 311710 to hex, then from hex to binary.
7. Convert 10010111101101012 to hex.
8. Write the next four numbers in this hex counting sequence: E9A, E9B, E9C, E9D,
_____, _____, _____, _____.
9. What range of decimal values can be represented by a four-digit hex number?
10. Represent the decimal value 178 to BCD.
11. How many bits are required to represent an eight-digit decimal number in BCD?
12. What is an advantage of encoding a decimal number in BCD rather than in straight
binary? What is a disadvantage?
13. Convert the number 0101 (binary) to its Gray code equivalent.
14. Convert 0101 (Gray code) to its binary number equivalent.

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8. The bit, byte, nibble, and word

Bit: The fundamental unit of information in a computer system, that is represented by 0 or
1.

Bytes: Most microcomputers handle and store binary data and information in groups of
eight bits, so a special name is given to a string of eight bits: it is called a byte.

Nibbles: Binary numbers are often broken down into groups of four bits, used with BCD
codes and hexadecimal number conversions. Because it is half as big as a byte, it was named
a nibble.

Words: A word is a group of bits that represents a certain unit of information that a computer
can process at a time. The word size can be defined as the number of bits in the binary word
that a digital system operates on. For example, personal computer on can handle four or eight
bytes at a time, so it has a word size of 32 or 64 bits resp.

Self assessment
1. How many bytes are needed to represent 235 10 in binary?
2. What is the largest decimal value that can be represented in BCD using two
bytes?
3. How many hex digits can a nibble represent?
4. How many nibbles are in one BCD digit?
5. A typical CD-ROM can store 650 megabytes of digital data. How many bits of data
can a CD-ROM hold? (Mega = 220 )
9. Alphanumeric Codes
A computer should recognize codes that represent letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks,
and other special characters as well as numbers. These codes are called alphanumeric codes.
A complete alphanumeric code would include the 26 lowercase letters, 26 up percase letters,
10 numeric digits, 7 punctuation marks, and anywhere from 20 to 40 other characters, such
as ?, /, #, %, *, and so on.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): every alphanumerals are
represented by seven-bit binary code.

10. Parity Method for Error Detection

Whenever information is transmitted from one device (the transmitter) to another device
(the receiver), there is a possibility that errors can occur such that the receiver does not
receive the identical information that was sent by the transmitter. many digital systems
employ some method for detection (and sometimes correction) of errors. One of the simplest
and most widely used schemes for error detection is the parity method.

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Parity Bit: A parity bit is an extra bit that is attached to a code group that is being transferred
from one location to another. The parity bit is made either 0 or 1, depending on the number
of 1s that are contained in the code group.

In the even-parity method, the value of the parity bit is chosen so that the total number of
1s in the code group (including the parity bit) is an even number. For example, suppose that
the group is 1000011. The code group has three 1s. Therefore, we will add a parity bit of 1
to make the total number of 1s an even number. The new code group, including the parity
bit, thus becomes

The odd-parity method is used in exactly the same way except that the parity bit is chosen so
the total number of 1s (including the parity bit) is an odd number. For example, for the code
group 1000001, the assigned parity bit would be a 1. For the code group 1000011, the parity
bit would be a 0.

Recall
2. What
✓ Theishexadecimal
the next binary number
number system isfollowing 10111
used in digital 2 in and
systems the computers
counting as an
efficient way of representing binary quantities.
✓ In conversions between hex and binary, each hex digit corresponds to four bits.
✓ The repeated-division method is used to convert decimal numbers to binary or
hexadecimal.
✓ Using an N-bit binary number, we can represent decimal values from 0 to 2N-1
✓ The BCD code for a decimal number is formed by converting each digit of the
decimal number to its four-bit binary equivalent.
✓ The Gray code defines a sequence of bit patterns in which only one bit changes
between successive patterns in the sequence.
✓ A byte is a string of eight bits. A nibble is four bits. The word size depends on the
system.
✓ An alphanumeric code is one that uses groups of bits to represent all of the
various characters and functions that are part of a typical computer’s keyboard.
✓ The ASCII code is the most widely used alphanumeric code.
✓ The parity method for error detection attaches a special parity bit to each
transmitted group of bits

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